Mrsa

[MamaHollie]

My son is 17...dd508...fev 110%...colonized with MRSA...first dx with it in 2012. He would do a round of lenezolid and not culture for 6 months or so and then BAM! out of nowhere. Unfortunately, we have been plagued with this...mess! He has not had a MRSA negative culture since the end of 2014. Now the drugs are not working as well as they previously did and he is flaring up more often. I am VERY interested in any alternative/holistic approaches to controlling this. Any ideas are appeciated. Thanks

 

[CF in TX]

I have colonized MRSA twice... was treated with Vancomycin and I believe Bactrim? through IVs. These seemed to knock it down for me but they did a number on my receiving veins. I don't know of any holistic approaches to MRSA though. Staph is a tough battle because you never really lose it completely. I know this probably isn't a ton of helpful information but hopefully your doctors will be able to find a working alternative

 

[DebA]

It seems MRSA is everywhere. My adult daughter struggles with it too. I've researched quite a bit, and the scientific evidence of Essential Oils effectiveness is on the rise, but there's so much involved. My daughter (dd508) has been hesitant to try EOs on her MRSA, for fear of interactions with her current treatments. I can't blame her, because EOs are potent, and there's most likely some hype and misinformation out there online.

That said, I personally witnessed my father, who has/had MAC, benefit greatly from EOs defused in his home. His case was not as complicated, but he went from not wanting to leave home due to constant coughing and breathing difficulties, to having his active life back. EOs have soothed his lungs without the hefty antibiotics that had disrupted his whole digestive tract. I truly believe EOs (and herbs) are worth looking into, but definitely do your homework and don't believe everything big companies claim, especially where safe usage is concerned. A site I like is Hopewelloils.com (formerly Heritage Oils), which has a lot of educational information and posts their sources.

In Oregon and Washington state there are also a couple of naturopathic institutes that train MDs to be NDs, so they learn the chemical science of EOs and herbs, and how they interact with conventional treatment. That seems to be where the treatment of these super bugs will need to go. Praying you find some good answers for your son.

 

[ethan508]

One note on using oils safely: don't nebulize them. Our lungs don't have an effective mechanism for dealing with oils. Inhaled oils can cause lipoid pneumonia and severe lung damage.

 

[MamaHollie]

I have def heard great things about EOs. Thanks for all of the posts. Ethan508...what about all of the oil plug- ins we gals like to use. Them too!!?? (She said in a horrified and worried tone)

 

[ethan508]

I've only read about the dangers of nebulized EOs. Toxicity is all about the dosage and a nebulized concentration would be far higher than an air freshener. But in general a person with sensitive lungs might want to keep the in home air particulate count as low as practical. I don't go crazy, but doing things like using the range hood when cooking, changing the HVAC filters regularly, and using substitutes for aerosols and off-gassing products (like vinegar in lieu of ammonia) are an easy change in the direction of goodness.

 

[leothelioness34]

I've got colonized MRSA and they give me Vancomycin through IV and it reduces the amount tremendously but my doctors have told me that once colonized you'll always have a positive culture. After a few rounds of the Vancomycin my MRSA doesn't flare up as much. Also they give me inhaled Colistin 28 days on 28 days off. You might want to inquire about those. I'm 34 and have had MRSA since I was a teenager I was diagnosed when I was one. My CF was pretty mild when I was a child but I still had flare ups. I wish I could give you some alternative medicine suggestions but everyone I know that has tried going that route didn't have the outcome they were hoping for. Make sure you discuss anything you do with his Cystic Fibrosis specialist to make sure nothing he's on will interact with anything new. I hope this helps.

 

[occupyjapan]

I'm 31 years old, have an FEV1 around his and have had MRSA for years. Its effect on lung function is nowhere near as bad as Pseudomonas. Is it sensitive to doxycycline? Rifampin? Cipro? Levaquin? Co-trimox? Clarithromycin? Azithromycin? Clindamycin? Minocycline? There are tons of oral options for MRSA and there are plenty of MSSA strains that are resistant to some of the options I've listed. The only real options you lose when you grow MRSA are in the vast majority of all real world cases are oral Augmentin, oral Keflex and the ability to have it covered by most IV beta-lactams (some of the new ones have MRSA coverage though) meaning an additional anti-MRSA IV during any exacerbation - and there are TONS of MRSA-covering IV meds (Zyvox, Synercid, Cubicin, Teicoplanin, Dalbavancin, Vancomycin, Tigecycline, etc.).

Zyvox seems like an awfully big gun to bring out for the occasional flareup if his FEV1 is 110%. The focus of CF treatment shouldn't be to no longer culture bacteria. You will not win that game and will only burn through your other antibiotic choices tilting against windmills. Keep his lungs clear, his FEV1 up and knock down any flareups with orals as they come along.

Holistic/alternative treatments rely on the placebo effect at best and can be very harmful at worst and most of the data is anecdotal accounts of what amount to folk remedies from people who think they have an M.D. from Google University. Please do not neb "essential oils", silver, ozone, herbal products, dilute isopropyl alcohol, dilute hydrogen peroxide or any other nonsense people on this board routinely suggest.

 

[occupyjapan]

Also they give me inhaled Colistin 28 days on 28 days off. You might want to inquire about those.

Vancomycin is a fine anti-MRSA drug but colistin does absolutely nothing of appreciable value against gram positive microbes; it kills bacteria by essentially punching holes in the outer lipid layer that only gram negative germs have; gram positive germs only have a cell wall, no outer lipid membrane and as such are resistant to colistin.

 

[MamaHollie]

Thank you for all of your input. It has really given me a lot to think about and research. He was put on Bactrin first thus time but didn't have any results...so, we are back to the Zyvox. So far we are staying out if the hospital but it seems to be flaring up about every 2 months now. I do hate thinking about the affects it is having on his lungs :-(